Robots are simplifying everyday life by providing an efficient, automated means for performing many menial tasks. For example, one area in which robots have been advantageously utilized is in automated storage and retrieval systems. Using robots to automatically find and retrieve storage items from potentially distant or inaccessible storage areas has greatly simplified and improved storage systems.
However, in storage systems that utilize robots for finding and retrieving storage items, it is not always advantageous to control every aspect of the robot's function electronically. For example, some automated storage and retrieval systems use robots that move planarly, lifting and repositioning inventory items across two dimensions. These systems may use end effectors that handle and manipulate the items. In such systems, in which the end effector is constantly moving across two planes, providing electrical power specifically to the end effector could require a wired power supply, and it can be very difficult to keep the wired supply from becoming twisted, tangled, or otherwise damaged during normal operations of the robot. This problem may be solved by means of an electronic robot with a strictly mechanical end effector.
Utilizing a strictly mechanical end effector presents another challenge, however. The end effector needs to be able to connect with a target storage item at an appropriate time, and yet it also needs to be able to maneuver freely around storage items. Protrusions that would usually aid the mechanical end effector in connecting to target storage items could impede its free movement.
In light of the foregoing, what is needed is a system that allows a strictly mechanical end effector to connect to only the appropriate target storage item at the appropriate time without the use of a protruding member, such that the end effector can freely maneuver between storage items.